Deer harvest numbers down at Indiana state parks
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) - The Indiana Department of Natural Resources says hunters in 2015 killed the second-smallest number of deer since state park reduction hunts began in 1993.
About 800 white-tailed deer were killed at 14 state parks during hunts on Nov. 16 to 17 and Nov. 30 to Dec. 1, the (Bloomington) Herald Times (http://bit.ly/1U6vvpz ) reported. Almost 400 deer were killed in 1993, the first year of the hunt, at Brown County State Park.
About 1,000 deer were killed in 2014 at 19 state parks. Nearly 1,300 deer were harvested in 2012 at 14 state parks.
Mike Mycroft, a district biologist with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources' Division of Fish and Wildlife who has compiled the statistics after the hunts since 2007, believes last year's low number of harvested deer was the result of inclement weather, and not because the hunts are no longer needed.
"We had some less-than-favorable weather," Mycroft said. "With fewer hunters showing up, you'll have less deer being harvested."
The number of hunters allowed in the state parks is determined by the number of acres. The agency allows one hunter for every 15 to 20 acres.
"A lot of these parks have different acreage. Overall, we may have had the same number of parks (as in 2012), but not the same number of hunters," Mycroft said.
This year's harvest rate was about the same as in the past few years, he said.
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Information from: The Herald Times, http://www.heraldtimesonline.com